Reading to Learn

Rationale: Summarization is on of the two most powerful strategies for comprehending text. An effective method of summarizing is called about-point, which asks two critical questions about the text: a) What is the text about? This is usually an easy question, and it identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. b) What is the main point the writer is making about that topic? Since the author usually makes several points, the reader should mark out information that is not important, underline important information, and then find an umbrella term that covers all the main points the author is making. The main point becomes the subject of the topic sentence. The teacher will model how to detect important information, that is needed to write a summary.

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Materials:

White board and marker.

(All items needed for each student.) Pencils, paper, individual copies of the article “Sharks,” summarization checklist, comprehension quiz, rubric for assessment.

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Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn how to summarize. Raise your hand if you have ever read an article or book and then recommended it to a friend. Did you read them the whole thing, or did you just tell them about the most important parts? Right! When we are telling someone about a book or article, we only tell them about the important parts of the story. This is called summarizing. Summarizing means to find the most important information in anything you read. Good readers do not try to remember everything. They use summarization strategies to remember only the important points the author is making about the topic. In that way, they reduce a text that may have hundreds or thousands of words to a compact gist that is easy to remember. This skill also makes it easier for us to comprehend what we read.

2. Say: “The best way to summarize is called about-point. In about-point, you ask yourself and easy question and a tough question, and you use your answers to make a topic sentence. The easy question is “what is the text about?” The tough question is “what is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” To answer the question, you have to first think of an umbrella term for all the important points the writer is telling you.” *Write these questions on the board for students to refer to.*

3. Say: “We are going to learn how to about-point a paragraph today. First, we need to discuss two important vocabulary words that you will be reading: identification and frequency. The first word we are going to go over is identification. Identification is what we use to prove who a person is (such as a driver’s license). Identify means to find out who or what something is. For example, ‘I tried to identify the snake.’ Now I want you to pull out a piece of paper and answer this question: ‘What is something that you will identify?’ The second word is frequency. Frequency means something that occurs often. For example, I frequently take my dog on a walk. On the same piece of paper, write something that you do frequently.”

4. Say: “Now that we know the words identification and frequency, we will look at a paragraph from the article together: “Sharks have a bad reputation as scary, man-eating creatures, but the reputation is undeserved for the most part. On average, there are less than 100 fatal shark attacks worldwide each year. When we hear the word shark, most of us think of ferocious predators like the Great White shark is portrayed in like Jaws. However, there are more than 450 species of sharks. Most sharks live in the ocean, but some, such as the bull shark, can survive in freshwater lakes and rivers.” This paragraph is about sharks, but what important points does the author make? The author explains that there are many different types of sharks and while shark attacks do happen sometimes, they are not intentional.

5. Say: “Now its your turn to try about-point! Read this paragraph: “A shark's offspring is called a pup. The young sharks are born with a full set of teeth and are ready to be on their own soon after birth - which is good since some fall prey to their own mothers!”

6. Say: “What is this paragraph about? Correct, it is about sharks. What are the main points the author is trying to make about sharks? Yes! When a shark is born, they are called pups. What is another point the author is trying to make? Right, when a shark is born, they already have a full set of teeth and they depart from the mother very quickly. To make a topic sentence, you will put these points together. Let’s try: “When a pup (baby shark) is born they already have a full set of teeth and depart from their mother soon after.”

7. Say: “Now, I want you to finish reading the article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph using about-point. After you have written your sentences, I want you to combine them in paragraph form. This will allow you to have a strong summary of the whole article once you have finished. Your summary will help you remember the most important facts about sharks. Remember to answer both questions of about-point to help you form a topic sentence. You can look at the board for the questions if you need help. Don’t forget to only pick out the most important points the author is making in each paragraph, and to summarize in your own words. When you are finished, staple your topic sentence page, and turn it in to me.”

8. I will review each student’s topic sentence page to determine if they successfully summarized the paragraphs of the article. I will use the assessment checklist to record students’ grades. The student will also take a brief comprehension quiz.

Summary Checklist:

Did I…

--Write my topic sentence?

--Find supporting details to help answer the question?

--Remove unimportant information by marking it out?

--Remove repeated ideas?

--Create a 3-5 sentence summary?

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Assessment:

Did the student…

--Write a topic sentence for each paragraph

--Collect important information / deleted unimportant or repetitive information

--Significantly reduce text from the original

--Successfully conjoin the important parts to form a topic sentence

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Quiz:

1. What is the typical lifespan of a shark?

2. What is a baby shark called?

3. Are sharks’ carnivores or herbivores?

4. How do sharks give birth?

5. How do sharks breath?

Resources:

“Sharks”

https://www.thoughtco.com/shark-printables-1832453

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Murray, Bruce. Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea

https://murraba.wixsite.com/reading-lessons/rl

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Zaloga, Aspen. “Sailing into Summarization”

https://aspenzaloga.wixsite.com/education/reading-to-learn-design

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